Brookings Institute’s “Future Development”: Shame on me: Why it was wrong to cost the Millennium Development Goals Shanta Devarajan, chief economist for the Middle East and North Africa region at the World Bank, discusses a paper he and colleagues wrote in 2002 estimating the costs of achieving the Millennium Development…

The Guardian: Wanted: innovative ideas on how to feed nine billion people Gerda Verburg, chair of the U.N. Committee on World Food Security “…As daunting as it may be, there are many opportunities available if we are willing to think smarter and use all our individual strength and the tools…

Washington Post: Letter to the Editor: Strengthen the commitment to save new mothers and newborns Carolyn Miles, president and chief executive of Save the Children USA “…[Michael Gerson’s Feb. 24 op-ed column, ‘Saving lives at the start,’] comes at a critical time when the United Nations and stakeholders are reexamining…

SciDev.Net: Philippines struggles to lower maternal mortality Manuel Dayrit, dean of the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health “The fight to lower maternal mortality in the Philippines turned a new leaf three years ago on 20 April 2012 with the launch of the 162 to 52 Health Summit. The…

Huffington Post: Girls and Women Must be at the Center of the Global Development Agenda Katja Iversen, CEO of Women Deliver “…In September the United Nations will release the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will drive progress on social, economic and environmental development for the next 15 years. If these…

Inter Press Service: Water and the World We Want Corinne Schuster-Wallace, senior research fellow at the U.N. University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, and Robert Sandford, EPCOR Water Security Chair at U.N. University; both co-authors of “Water in the World We Want” “…More than any other resource, freshwater underpins…

Huffington Post: Our Collective Global Future: Children and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals Anika Rahman, human rights lawyer “…These SDGs will include specific goals and targets covering several important challenges. A number of issues related to children are highlighted in a proposed strategy that is the basis of ongoing…

U.N. News Agency: Rights of people with disabilities cannot be ignored in development agenda, U.N. experts “‘One billion people — 15 percent of the world’s population — are persons with disabilities, and their rights cannot be ignored,’ a group of United Nations human rights experts said [Friday], as they urged…

Inter Press Service: Indigenous Food Systems Should Be on the Development Menu “Overcoming hunger and malnutrition in the 21st century no longer means simply increasing the quantity of available food but also the quality. … Organized to reflect on this, among other issues, the second Global Meeting of the Indigenous…

The Guardian: Will the SDGs be the last hope for lost causes? Dominic Haslam, director of policy and program strategy at Sightsavers “…Despite many NTDs being straightforward to prevent or treat and progress being made to treat more people than ever before, they are still rarely prioritized in global health…